AusBonsai

hey everyone, what should i do with my potensai Japanese maple to start it off, its around 2 years old?

Photos would be a good place to start!

Glenda

pic 1 japanese maple, just recieved it today through ebay.

any advice on where to start?

simo_5 wrote:hey everyone, what should i do with my potensai Japanese maple to start it off, its around 2 years old?

Bend them into contorted messes, then watch perfection emerge from chaos.

i dont think going the contorted twisting is the way to go with maples, it would look very contrieved. maples are natural spreading trees, i would only put gentle bends in, going a bit more than what you would normally to allow for when they grow, and then i would get them in the ground or a grow box, there is a lot of growing to do for these guys mate.

jamie

Jamie wrote:i dont think going the contorted twisting is the way to go with maples, it would look very contrieved. maples are natural spreading trees, i would only put gentle bends in, going a bit more than what you would normally to allow for when they grow, and then i would get them in the ground or a grow box, there is a lot of growing to do for these guys mate.

jamie

He he. I was figuring he wouldn't bend them so much they snapped, they snap easily, hence I visioned my contorted mess ending in moderate curves. Just sounded better than "gentle bends".

cheers, yeah i think il just let it grow for a while, also how do i get it to grow outwards and bushy rather than just straight up?

if a tree is left unhindered how it grows is that they will grow up, then spread out after they have reached a certain point, right now you are developing the trunk, and you will be working on the nebari in these early stages too. while you have them like this then it is best to do so now.

so in saying that growing your trunk, three main things, girth, taper and movement, so you got the idea for movement, girth you will have to let it grow unhindered, this will give you some size and height. to introduce taper you will have to chop back to a new leader, which will probably go in a different direction, this will slow it down in girth but is the price needed to be paid for taper. the nebari should be worked on and anything needed fixing fixed when you lift the tree, some do it every 3 years others every 1.

once you have grown your trunk then you can look at getting it to grow out and spread, and develop branching, and shape

jamie

Before you start to grow them strongly get the roots sorted this winter Its quite easy to get good nebari on palmatums but you need to deal with the very thick roots first. Wiring these trees can be a bit of a problem because the bark scars very easily, if you want to wire them with strong wire wrap them in raffia first. the alternative if you want trunk movement is to plant them on an angle when you repot and then cut for direction.
Craig